"Yuseong Products Illicit Distribution"... Noru Paint Cornered from All Sides

Paint Industry "Noroo Paint Products Must Be Recalled"
Noroo Paint "No Product Issues... Will Conduct Own Testing" Pushback

The paint industry has unusually united in voice over Noroo Paint's automotive repair paint. They claim that Noroo Paint violated the industry's agreement to supply water-based paint. Although Noroo Paint has pushed back, damage to its credibility and sales appears inevitable.

"Noroo Paint products must be recalled"

On the 10th, automotive repair paint manufacturers KCC, Samhwa Paint Industrial, Gangnam Jevisco, Jokwang Paint, Axalta Coating Systems, and PPG Korea issued a joint statement urging the complete recall of Noroo Paint's 'Water Color Plus' product.

Water Color Plus is a basecoat for automotive repair (paint applied last to reproduce color during vehicle repair) launched by Noroo Paint in March last year. At launch, Noroo Paint promoted Water Color Plus as a water-based paint.

Previously, in August 2022, the Ministry of Environment encouraged the transition to water-based paints and signed a voluntary agreement with nine paint manufacturers, including Noroo Paint, to eradicate the distribution of oil-based paints. The core of the agreement is to switch production from automotive repair oil-based coatings containing volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which cause ozone formation in summer, to water-based coatings with lower VOC content.

Despite the agreement, voices within the industry have persisted, claiming that Noroo Paint violated the agreement and distributed oil-based paint through loopholes. Paint is mixed on-site before use with resin, colorants, and thinners. To be called water-based paint, the mixture must also be water-based. The industry believes that Noroo Paint’s product, marketed as water-based paint, requires mixing with an oil-based mixture.

In fact, the Ministry of Environment commissioned the Insurance Development Institute's Automotive Technology Research Institute, KCL (Korea Conformity Laboratories), and KTR (Korea Testing & Research Institute) to test whether Water Color Plus is water-based. When mixed with water-based mixtures, the paint showed a color deviation of 13.7. In contrast, when mixed with oil-based mixtures, the color deviation was 0.5. The color reproducibility was better when mixed with oil-based mixtures.

Also, when the paint’s color deviation was 0.5, the VOC content was 766g per liter (g/L). This is 3.8 times the standard of 200g/L set by the Atmospheric Environment Conservation Act. The industry views this as a violation of both the law and the agreement by Noroo Paint.

Noru Paint Watercolor Plus product. Noru Paint official website

Automotive repair paint market worth 160 billion KRW

The industry believes Noroo Paint’s use of loopholes is to prevent losing market share. The automotive repair paint market is worth about 160 billion KRW, currently dominated by KCC and Noroo Paint. Since the 2022 agreement, each company has invested in developing water-based paints to enter this market.

However, on-site workshops still prefer oil-based paints over water-based ones, which has been an obstacle. Oil-based paints are cheaper and dry faster than water-based paints. Also, oil-based paints are color-matched and provided by dealerships upon purchase, whereas water-based paints require the painting company to mix them directly, which is cumbersome.

The industry believes Noroo Paint exploited this point to supply oil-based paints through loopholes even after the agreement. This prevented competitors from entering and expanded their market share.

Noroo Paint has strongly denied these industry criticisms. They plan to invite paint manufacturer representatives to conduct their own tests under the same conditions as the Ministry of Environment’s experiments, asserting that their products have no issues.

Regarding the color deviation, Noroo Paint stated, "Our internal inspection results show the color difference values are within normal ranges, and we expect errors in the Ministry of Environment’s test results. Demanding a product recall without verifying results on normal products is unfair."

They added, "Noroo Paint is conducting step-by-step verification procedures with dealerships that want to supply industrial coatings to prevent the distribution of industrial coatings at automotive repair dealerships."